ArticleAnnals of work exposures and health2018
Exposure to Wood Dust, Microbial Components, and Terpenes in the Norwegian Sawmill Industry.
Article in Annals of work exposures and health, 2018. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 11 papers.
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Who cites it
11 citing papers in PubMed, 32 citations in OpenAlex.
- Work-related airways disease and risk factors in Mozambiquan wood processing workers.Occupational medicine (Oxford, England) · 2025Article
- Immune modulating effects of continuous bioaerosol and terpene exposure over three years among sawmill workers in Norway.Scandinavian journal of work, environment & health · 2025Article
- Wood-Based Panels and Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs): An Overview on Production, Emission Sources and Analysis.Molecules (Basel, Switzerland) · 2025Review
- Impact of air recirculation and humidification systems on wood dust exposure during woodworking.Annals of work exposures and health · 2025Article
- Development of a quantitative North and Central European job exposure matrix for wood dust.Annals of work exposures and health · 2023Article
- Exposure Characterization of Wood Dust Particulate, Endotoxins, and (1-3)-β-d-Glucans, and Their Determinants in Mozambiquan Wood Processing Workers.Annals of work exposures and health · 2023Article
- Divergent TLR2 and TLR4 Activation by Fungal Spores and Species Diversity in Dust from Waste Sorting Plants.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2023Article
- Assessment of airborne endotoxin in sandstorm dust and indoor environments using a novel passive sampling device in Al Zulfi city, Saudi Arabia - Establishing threshold exposure levels.Saudi journal of biological sciences · 2021Article
- Exposure Determinants of Wood Dust, Microbial Components, Resin Acids and Terpenes in the Saw- and Planer Mill Industry.Annals of work exposures and health · 2020Article
- A method development for bacterial quantification and qualification in occupational exposure.Environmental monitoring and assessment · 2020Article
- The Inhalable Mycobiome of Sawmill Workers: Exposure Characterization and Diversity.Applied and environmental microbiology · 2019Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
12 authors at 2 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
Sawmill workers are exposed to wood dust (a well-known carcinogen), microorganisms, endotoxins, resin acids (diterpenes), and vapours containing terpenes, which may cause skin irritation, allergy, and respiratory symptoms including asthma. The health effects of most of these exposures are poorly understood as most studies measure only wood dust. The present study assessed these exposures in the Norwegian sawmill industry, which processes predominantly spruce and pine. Personal exposures of wood dust, resin acids, endotoxin, fungal spores and fragments, mono-, and sesquiterpenes were measured in 10 departments in 11 saw and planer mills. The geometric mean (GM) and geometric standard deviation (GSD) thoracic exposures were: 0.09 mg m-3 dust (GSD 2.6), 3.0 endotoxin units (EU) m-3 (GSD 4.9), 0.4 × 105 fungal spores m-3 (GSD 4.2), 2 × 105 fungal fragments m-3 (GSD 3.2), and 1560 ng m-3 of resin acids (GSD 5.5). The GM (GSD) inhalable exposures were: 0.72 mg m-3 dust (2.6), 17 EU m-3 (4.3), 0.4 × 105 fungal spores m-3 (3.8), and 7508 ng m-3 (4.4) of resin acids. The overall correlation between the thoracic and inhalable exposure was strong for resin acid (rp = 0.84), but moderate for all other components (rp = 0.34-0.64). The GM (GSD) exposure to monoterpenes and sesquiterpenes were 1105 µg m-3 (7.8) and 40 µg m-3 (3.9), respectively. Although mean exposures were relatively low, the variance was large, with exposures regularly exceeding the recommended occupational exposure limits. The exposures to spores and endotoxins were relatively high in the dry timber departments, but exposures to microbial components and mono-and sesquiterpenes were generally highest in areas where green (undried) timber was handled. Dust and resin acid exposure were highest in the dry areas of the sawmills. Low to moderate correlation between components (rp ranging from 0.02 to 0.65) suggests that investigations of exposure-response associations for these components (both individually and combined) are feasible in future epidemiological studies.
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